I live in a land called Mid-America. Here, we want less government involvement in our lives. And we're mostly non-elite, working middle-class. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Refuting liberal talking points about Texas

I knew it wouldn't take long after Gov. Rick Perry announced his presidential campaign before all the pundits came out with "facts" about how Texas is really a bad place and Perry is a bad governor. I've heard it all before, but most of it is not based on any thoughtful analysis of the real data.

Here's one example. One writer compared the median income in California vs. Texas, stating that the level of income in Texas was so much worse than anywhere else. California has a median income of $56,000 while Texas comes in at $48,000. Now go look at the cost of living and decide which income has more purchasing power. Texas blows California away. According to apartmentratings.com, a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles ranges from $1,500 to $2,500 a month. In Dallas, the same apartment rents for $700 to $1,200. You can get a fairly nice three-bedroom, 1400-square-foot house in the Dallas area for about $100,000, maybe a little more. Try that in California.

But don't get me wrong. Texas ain't perfect and I haven't decided if I'd vote for Perry. And while there is no income tax, property taxes make up for it. Take a look at Texas' neighbor Oklahoma, with an income tax, but lower property taxes. And it's scorchingly hot here in the summer. Like Phoenix, but with a little extra humidity thrown in. But the winters are much colder. Half the state is mostly desert, and it's pretty flat. I like mountains, so I'll probably not retire here, but many people from California and New York are doing so right now. But baby, there are jobs here.

Texas Liberal Myth #2: Texas' 8.2 percent unemployment is hardly exceptional - Texas is adding jobs at a rate faster than any state at 2.2 percent. But the state's unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, which is higher than blue states like Massachusetts and New York. How is this possible? Easy. Texas' population is growing much faster than any other state. They have added 739,000 residents since the recession began. If Texas had the same population at the beginning of the recession that they do now, its unemployment rate would be 2.3%.

Texas Liberal Myth #3: Texas has only created low-paying jobs - Texas median hourly wage is $15.14 which is actually slightly below the median (28th out of 51 regions). But wages in Texas have actually increased in Texas since the recession began. In fact, since the recession started hourly wages in Texas have increased at a 6th fastest pace in the nation. And as stated above, the cost of living in Texas more than makes up for slightly lower wages.

Texas Liberal Myth #3: Texas wouldn't be leading in job creation without the oil industry - Energy has been a major source of job growth in Texas. In the last year, 25 percent of all job growth has come from the energy sector (which includes all natural gas, coal, and electricity generation). But even if you remove all of Texas' energy-job growth, it would still lead the nation in job creation.

At PoliticalMathBlog.com, the following line of reasoning highlights the errors in thinking made by many people:

One can argue that Perry had very little to do with the job situation in Texas, but such a person should probably prepare themselves for the consequences of that line of reasoning. If Rick Perry had nothing to do with creating jobs in Texas, than why does Obama have something to do with creating jobs anywhere? And why would someone advocate any sort of "job creating" policies if policies don't seem to matter when it comes to the decade-long governor of Texas? In short, it seems to me that this line of reasoning, in addition to sounding desperate and partisan, hogties its adherents into a position where they are simultaneously saying that government doesn't create jobs while arguing for a set of policies where government will create jobs.

So the next time you hear left-wing talking points about Texas coming from the mouths of Democrats, or MSNBC, the Huffington Post, bloggers, or other "news" sources, think again. While I may or may not support Perry for president, I'm pretty tired on "informed" people blowing "facts" out of their rear ends. If you want to refute this post, you'd better have some hard data, with links, and not some reference to a idiot blogger.

Yea, I get cranky about this. So be it. I'm just tired of all the bool sheet, as they say in Texas.

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About Me

I am a retired military senior NCO with a B.S. in the Liberal Arts and 24 hours of graduate work in communications and management theory. Currently working in the IT industry as a programmer. "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington